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Hi all. So more problems here ... I can not tell you how depressing this getting

My son (age 7)was given the DDT to screen for dyslexia. His performance resulted in the mild range of dyseidesia ( he scored 20% on the dyseidesia section) . He scored normal range for dysphonesia - or so they tell me that this is normal; however, his score was 60%, which seemed low to me and some things on the internet say this is a 'borderline' score. The examiner also noted my son had much trouble completing the encoding portion.

Apparently, dyseidesia is "a type of dyslexia characterized by a deficit in the ability to perceive whole words as visual gestalts and match with auditory gestalts." At least it was characterized as "mild," I guess (although, again, I thought 20% sounded low and I looked it up on the internet and and on the internet 20% is characterized as 'moderate'). The examiner also noted that the "encoding portion of the assessment was very challenging for DS to complete." But I did not get a score on that section and I am not sure what that means in terms of dyslexia.

Anyway, I have no idea what I am suppose to do now - get more evaluations or what... I think this test is just a screening measure. So far, I have only discussed the test results with one of his vision therapists not the doctor.

I can not begin to tell you how depressing this is getting. I mean, I strongly suspected a form of dyslexia but, of course, I hoped I would be wrong. And I thought dyslexia had only to do with problems with phonics. Anyway, if you have any advice or insight, I'd certainly welcome it. Just wondering what I do now. Also, my son has a vision disorder (intermittent convergent strabismus) for which he is receiving vision therapy. Any advice, insight, words of wisdom, etc., would be very much appreciated.

Take a deep breath and don't be depressed. You and your child will come through this just fine. Your child has gifts and struggles that other kids don't have-- and that's OK. His gifts will win out.

My son was diagnosed at age 7 and I felt depressed and overwhelmed, too. He's 10 1/2 now and is doing great and has scored to 100 % on two spelling tests in the last month and is a grade above in reading. His writing still isn't where it should be, but it has improved dramatically this school year and I think he'll be fine. When he was diagnosed, he could barely read at a kindergarten level (which somehow the school thought was within the range of normal), so he has made up a tremendous amount of ground in a few short years.

What I suggest is that you immediately find a good tutor, regardless of what your school plans to do. We had one come to the house 2x a week, in the mornings for 2 1/2 years. We bribed my son to cooperate, because by the time he was diagnosed, he had a pretty bad attitude about school and reading. We stopped the tutoring when we realized he was 1 year above grade level in reading. That was in early 4th grade.

We used Wilson. We had a wasted 3 months where my son got worse in reading when we tried some slick new scam-program called Fast-track. I think there's a lot of voodoo and wishful thinking when it comes to dyslexia remediation, so make sure you do your homework when you select a remediation program. I also wanted an actual research-based program to follow, not just a tutor.

The Yale Center for Dyslexia and Eides seem to have the most scientifically based information. Lindamood-Bell is a program that seems to work for a lot of people. Davis seems like magical thinking to me. Another family we know used some kind of dyslexia therapy where their child was rolled around in blankets. (They think it worked, but sounds doubtful to me.) So there are many, many options out there.

As for school, what we did, we contact the principal to tell him we had a formal diagnosis of dyslexia and we wanted to discuss how to get remediation. That started the ball rolling for meetings that led to a 3-month 1xweek intervention through school. Because my son is HG, and wasn't behind enough, he never qualified for anything beyond that, which is why we did a private tutor. But my son does have a 504, which gives him accommodations. Each kid needs different types of help-- so you might get an IEP or a 504, depending on your child's needs.

It is a long road-- and I'm sure there are many frustrating times ahead for us still, as well. But I do believe you can manage the situation, and your son can still succeed, even thrive with dyslexia.

Hang in there are just move forward one step at a time.

Breathe. In. Out. In. Out.

More information is always better than none. Having the results of this screening now gives you a framework to think about your child as well as a starting point from which to ask more questions.

Why was this screening done in the first place, and does this test (never heard of it) test for the types of struggles that you observe in your son? Do the screening results synch with what you observe about your child? Does the whole word discrimination struggle seem to align with anything you observe in his development?

How is his reading coming along? Is it outside the range of what you would expect considering his vision struggles?

How is he doing in school? What types of struggles do you observe? Something more than just reading? Are there writing struggles, and if so, of what nature?

Don't try to answer all those questions all at once. Please. Whittle away at those questions are you start to wrap your head around what struggles your son might or might not have.

I have found the getting the results of testing to be almost liberating, as they really did capture and describe why school was such a miserable place for my DD. She's been doing Orton-Gillingham for 4 months now and doing fabulously. For DD, has removed a lot of the difficulty DD had in expressing herself in writing to reveal an incredibly talented writer.

Thank you all. The screening was done at my request. I had suspected dyslexia for awhile. (the school has never suspected dyslexia - or any of the other issues he has such as vision disorder and hypotonia) because he is super smart ... He is on grade level despite his disabilities because, I believe, he is so smart he is able to compensate. However, he basically had a breakdown last year and ended up with an "anxiety disorder" and my belief is that while he can compensate it is VERY taxing on him to have to compensate without support for hours on end every day. As a result, I have a pretty darn great IEP already (for vision, hypotonia, and anxiety) that I basically wrote and advocated for myself (with some help from the fabulous peaople here on this board). When was diagnosed with a vision disorder (convergence insufficiancy), reading became less laborous but still certain things have persisted and did not seem to get better even with his vision therapy. So I requested he be looked at for dyslexia. He actually reads on grade level (last year according tot the WAIS he was actually a year above grade level) but I can just tell somethign is wrong... it's hard to tease out whether it is vsiion or dyslexia. He is doing well in school this year because of the strong IEP and b/c am basically a major pain in the a$$ in making sure he is accomodated.

Anyway, the big thing is he writes everything backwards - he will right every single number backwards if left on his own. His letters as well as his numbers. There are other symtoms but that one is just sooooo severe - he wrote a calendatr for november and very single number from 1 to 30 was backwards - every one. except the number one LOL. He also reads was as saw and on as no, etc... That has improved with VT but is still happening. He still confsues b and d regularly. I could go and on.

I have advice for tutoring - a freind is actually a orton-gillingham tutor and has recommneded places in my area. But it is SO expensive. Does insurance cover this with a diagnosis?

Curious on the backwards writing... has he tried switching hands or closing the same eye as he writes with? DS just finished his patching for amblyopia a couple of months ago, which seems to have helped, but visual tracking is still coming up to speed. If yours may be more visual related, we found large graph paper for writing to help as well as a reading guide that let's him see only one line at a time.

It's all so tricky with what is a direct impact, what is develomentally slow due the vision issue, what is a deeper effect due to issues during a criticial growth phase, and what is primarily coincidence.

He has major problems with directionality and laterality... He is 7 and still has problems with knowing his left form his right... My three year old knows his left from right. Any kind of 3D manipulation he seems to have trouble with (does that make sense?). And he just guesses at b and d - seriously ... now he reads so well he can figure out many times from the rest of the word if it is suppose to be a b or d and go back and correct himself... it is so weird. His tracking isgreat since VT though - he went from below grade level to two grade level ahead on those type of evals. Interestingly ( or maybe not - I find it interesting) he scores super high on visual memory and visual attention tests.... so I guess that is good. His comprehension is high too.

Zen, he has never tried switching hands or closing the same eye as he writes with... I hate to encourage closing one eye becasue people with his vision disorder often turn one eye off and I don't want to further encourage that... But I could try it just to see what happens. I don't think I could get him to write with his left hand thouigh - he can barely write with his right hand due to the hypotonia ... well that isn't entirely true - he is doing well with OT, but I don't think he could write with his other hand well enough to tell us anything. But I could give it a try anyway.

I was just speculating on the handedness, but forgot you were dealing with the hypotonia, too. My amblyopia was mis-corrected with a year of full time patching at 1yr old, and I still have to squint my good eye to pass the driving vision test because my brain seems to treat my bad eye as 100% peripheral vision.

An interesting subject to me... I have extreme internal 3D manipulation but can't catch a ball. My parents say it took forever to teach me right from left. I always imagine that my brain decided if it didn't need it for the eyes it would put it to another use.

LOL You sound like you have a few things in common with my DS It's amazing what the brain does when it realizes/decides it can not trust the eyes...

marytheres, you're doing a wonderful job of advocating for your ds and you're making good progress both with getting remediation for his vision challenges and most importantly - you're making progress in an area you probably can't see for yourself at this time because you're so caught up in it all - but the key here is you're making progress in understanding what challenges your ds is facing. Even though you don't fully understand what this latest set of test data means or which direction it will lead you in, it's more data that you didn't have before the test. Parenting a 2e child can be a long journey where you learn a little bit here, observe a lot, try to figure out how to apply what you learn from tests, try a new way of remediating etc, find that there's another challenge that needs to be addressed, and you just keep plugging along. I hope that didn't sound completely frustrating to think of - I mostly pointed it out because in the midst of all of the worries and planning and work to figure out how to overcome challenges that lie ahead, it's easy to not see how very much progress your child has already made.. and it's very easy to feel like the challenges your child is still facing may seem overwhelming. They aren't overwhelming, they just *feel* overwhelming at times.

We're not dealing with dyslexia, but with other reading challenges. I find reading challenges extremely challenging! So many different skills go into reading. We have a friend who wrote backwards like your ds, but she also wrote forward - she would switch direction as she got to the middle of the page and then switched hands... I am not sure she ever grew out of it, but she eventually succumbed to the adults in her life's multiple attempts to have her only use her right hand In her case, there were no other challenges (that I know of). My ds used to right some letters backwards just because he'd get them mixed up due to his dysgraphia, but it was very random which letters, they weren't always reversed, etc. Since it's occurring all the time for your ds, I wonder if it's not some quirk in how his brain is interpreting the letters it sees? Did your vision therapy dr have any thoughts on it? FWIW, my first thought is, get him typing... but that's the parent of a dysgraphic kid talking, so take it with a huge grain of salt Our dd who had the convergence/tracking and double vision issues does rely on typing a bit more than the typical student. We've never sought out an accommodation specifically for it, but she's in a school (and grade) where students have the choice to type for most of their LA/Science/Social Studies work and she prefers typing, and I suspect it's because handwriting causes her more eye fatigue. I've really so often wished I could see the world through her eyes for just one day, because even though she made huge progress with vision therapy she says things every now and then that make us realize she really doesn't see things the same way most people do... plus I wonder how often her one eye automatically shuts down. And oops... I started rambling about my dd... sorry about that!

Re the reading and dyslexia test results... can you ask the person who administered the test what his/her interpretation is and what they recommend for remediation? Even if it's a school district person who tested and your child doesn't qualify for services, they may be able to make suggestions re what might help. If they have no suggestions, I'd look into what other sources are available in your area for reading assessments and reading tutoring/help.

At home, have you had your ds read out loud to you? Does he seem to be reading ok or does he miss words, miss letters, struggle on words you think should be familiar? Does he retain what he's read? Did the tester do any type of testing of auditory vs visual comprehension?

I am also trying to remember - has your ds been through a neuropsych educational eval? I'm not necessarily thinking that you need one, just trying to remember if he's had one and what you found out. My dyspraxic dysgraphic ds has the major issues with telling left from right... he still has to very conciously think it through even at 13, and asks me a lot of the time. And his younger sister also had it figured out at 3!

Sorry I don't have any specific advice... hang in there! You *will* get things figured out, one thing at a time.

Best wishes,

polarbear

Thank you so much, Polarbear! I love hearing all about your kids and you are a great wealth of information and experience. Thank you!

I have not had DS evaluated by a neuropsychologist yet. We had a consultation with one specifically because I wanted to explore learning diabilities - particularly dyslexia/dysgraphia. We liked her and she came up with a battery of tests for testing dyslexia/dysghraphia. However, a week or so later we got the results of the developmental vision eval and the neuropsych and I both agreed it would be best to wait on doing the testing until after he has had a good amount of vision therapy and his vision problem remediated before testing for the learning disorders. I liked the neuro as did my DS - and allegedly my insurance would cover most of the testing by her. We were planning on going to her this spring and get him also tested on the WISC IV again (in addition to testing for the learning disorders) to see if there are any changes in his GAI/FSIQ as a result of getting the visson stuff treated.

However, last night I contacted the Sarah Barton website for info and she/it informed me that if my child attends a public school, I need to hire a "Certified Dyslexia Testing Specialist" to get a diagnose that the school will acknowledge... and I am not sure my neuropsych has that qualification so may have to just get him tested specifically for dyslexia by a Certified Dyslexia Testing Specialist.

I watched the Sarah Barton videos http://www.dys-add.com/videos/dyslexiaSymptomsSolutions_Part01.html and my DS just has SO many of the signs. Except that as a small child he not only never had a speech delay or any kind of pronunciation problem but he excelled in that area. He was speaking in correct grammer and full sentences well before two... He never did much "baby talk" he was always very articulate ---- people always commented (and still do) that he sounds like a a 40 year old in a child's body. I don't remember him having trouble with rhyming and he never had an ear infection.

However, he has most of the other signs:

1. great difficulty with left from right
2. can't tie shoes
3. had great difficulting memorizing address, phone number, days of week and months (he still can't do phone numbers. Still. He just recently seems to have mastered his address but he does seem to get the order of the numbers wrong). He does now know all of the months and days of the week but I definitely think he was 'slow' on those.
4. He has all of the dysgraphia writing symptoms. All of them. Every one. But he also has hypotonia so that's often to what we attribute the writing problems; hwoever, he does things like starts writing letter from the bottom up that probably do not have to do with hypotonia. And the reversals - reverses pretty much constantly.
5.Reading symptoms: skips small words (like the prepositions, etc), ignores suffixes (I have noticed he has great trouble with suffixes and will often ignore them - had no idea this was common with dyslexia), guesses at words, reads "was" as "saw" and "on" as "no." Last night he read the word "spot" as "stop" and then went back and corrected himself when he realzed "stop" must be wrong b/c it didn't make sense in the sentence. He also read "also" as "laso," reads slowly, reads through punctuation (but this has been improving). regarding spelling, I have no idea how bad Ben's is ... on the WAIS he cored very hiigh on reading and math but the spelling portion was "average." However, the dyslexia screenign tester noted that on their test DS had great difficulty on the encoding section - buit it didn;t say his score or even whether he did poorly or not.

The only other big monkeywrench is that DS actually reads and is on "grade level and above." It seems like when certain people see that the decide right then and there he must not have dyslexia - he can read! This is common with highly motivated and/or highly intelligent/gifted kids, though, right? They can still have dyslexia even though they are not below grade level but even above, right? He also excels at math - he does very well at math and dyslexics apparently often have trouble with math.

Oh and now that I have been educating myself about dyslexia... I am convicnced my husband is at least mildly dyslexic. As I went through all of the symptoms with him, he kept saying "Oh come on I had that trouble - it's normal - especially for us boys!" I was like "uh no." And he has many of the symptoms of an adult with dyslexia. He was in remedial reading in grade school for a few years - it's well known that in the early years of school, my husband couldn't write, read or spell (his spelling was atrocious no matter how hard he studied). Spell check and computers saved him in middle school and he excelled. He still avoids "reading"... he listens to books on CD all of the time but I have actually begged him to read different books on parenting and he will hand them to me and ask me to read it to him. He CAN read but he finds it so uncomfortable and fatiguing he avoids it a lot ... a lot more than he realizes and a lot more than he realizes is "normal".

So, I am not sure what the school will do. I am not angry at them - I can see their point. I contacted them about the screening results and they were all "your DS is completely on grade level - he reads quite well he is above average in many of his studies...etc.." They did say if they get me copies of the screening test and the doc's opinions/interpretations they will discuss with me what they can do. I figure that's nice - So we'll see.

It's just ironic to me - last year they (the school) was all like "there is something wrong with Ben!" - and it felt (to me) like they wanted him to be adhd/add/or maybe even ASD... So I get him evaluated and I start seeing that he seems to have some learnimng differences and this year I am like "I think there is something wrong too! But I think it's learning problem!" and they are all suddenly very much of the opinion "Ben is doing great! He's doing so well! He has no problems!" ESPECIALLY when I keep saying I think he has a learning disorder. They seem so anxious to keep assuring me he's doing so well he couldn't possibly - he's no "different than his peers." Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the positivity... I love that people are saying good things about him for a change - instead of "we need to talk to you about DS." And it trickles down to DS who is much happier at school this year. But I have to admit it makes me wonder... Do some schools 'like'(or find it easier MAYBE?) to deal with adhd/add or spectrum disorders rather than physical disabilities or learning disorders like dyslexia? I really think that if I were like "please test my kid for ADHD or ASD they'd be more willing" They seem to love "behavioral experts and plans" and social skills classes and such... It just seems that way to me. But mention a learning difference and they get kind-of cagey weird.

Anyway, if they won't test him (or test him properly), I will get him tested myself. But the tutoring is expensive - I'd love to be able to get them to do that. However, I see their point that they wouldn't want to spend money tutoring a kid who is not only not behind but ahead. Nevertheless, as his mother that can not be enough for me.

Also, I do think a lot of the reason that DS is doing as well this year as the school says is because this year unlike last year, he has an IEP and strong accommodation for his vision and hypontonia.... He gets breaks, teachers and aids BELIEVE him now when he says my "eyes hurt," they help him write and scribe for him when they notice he is fatiguing, etc... They realize he is 'slow' in tasks for a reason out of his ocntrol (a physcial reason). Last year he was just pushed to do more, he was hurried (Ben, you have to keep up!) and he was treated as though he was 'just saying' his eyes hurt because he was simply trying to avoid the task (basically he was just lazy and didn't want to do his work or he was add/adhd and that's why he did this stuff)... As a result he really broke down and all the school people saw was weird behavior and him shutting down - they didn't see the actually physcial issues causing his problems... so, in their defense....

I hit a lot of those points and my son at the moment a bit more.
1. Left Right - Check
2. Can't tie shoes - Check (actually, I finally figured it out at age 40 when I found a web site that explained the principle behind the opposing strings with a diagram of it)
3. Memorizing - Check
4. Dysgraphia - Check
5. Skip small words - Check for DS (much reduced if he uses his finger or a bookmark, but he still comprehends), but not for me (I've always had to sub-vocalize and still do when I read, but I read a lot and fast)

Doesn't mean it isn't dyslexia, but it seems tending towards the abstract/whole picture realm combined with visual tracking issues either is a type of dyslexia or smells a lot alike. I also think there is something to do with mirror neurons as no one can show me how to do anything. But I can read any manual or see diagrams of devices and am good to go.

I'll be curious where this winds up for you as we aren't using any extra therapy, but the word skipping is having minor ripples due to some of the ways testing in school focuses on out loud exact reading.

Interesting Zen ! I am sorry, I can not remember - do you and/or your DS have dyslexia? Or no? (Sounds like no?)

I'm now highly skeptical of all online checklists of signs and symptoms of various things. Going on things I find online, my kids aren't gifted, my DD isn't dyslexic, and I have OCD. And yet, they're both gifted, DD is most certainly dyslexic, and anyone taking one glance at me or my office knows I'm far from OCD.

As a point of reference on the right vs left bit: I coached soccer for 13 girls age 8-10 last year. I discovered when trying to debug some serious positioning problems that only 7 were solid on right versus left. From there on out, I wrote in pen on their right hand at the start of each game. I'd say 9 were solid with RL 7 months later with 4 still checking their hands as they ran out onto the field each time.

I think R-L comes over a very wide time window for normally developing kids.

A neuropsych can sort this out, and can most certainly make a diagnosis of dyslexia that a school will recognize. This can be particularly useful for a kid who's had a checkered past with the school, and they will sort out differences between ability and performance without regard to grade level.

Hi marytheres - I think that's a good plan to wait on the neuropsych testing until your ds has been through vision therapy I also think it sounds like you've done a great job advocating for your ds at school, and they are receptive - that's great!


I wouldn't take the word of a business re what the school district requires. I would ask your neuropsychologist if he/she knows what the school district requires, or I would call the school district SPED office and ask (if you can find a helpful person that you trust to give you a correct answer) or I would ask a local parent advocate if there is an advocate's group in your area. You absolutely want to have him tested by a provider that the school district will find credible, but the Barton business has a vested interest in convincing you to test with them.

When you do see the neuropsych, if there are indications of dyslexia, they will most likely refer you on for further reading testing and screening (that's been our experience - the neuropsych is where you look at the broad spectrum picture of what's up, then when you have a diagnosis you still need more testing etc specifically directed at the area of challenge. It wouldn't hurt to have a dyslexia screening prior to the neuropsych eval, but I would wait until you feel that you've seen the majority of gains you'll find through VT, and I also would ask your neuropsych what testing they do vs a dyslexia screen by a dyslexia tutoring service, and who they usually recommend for dyslexia screening and tutoring in your area.

polarbear

Great advice Polarbear as usual! Thanks!

I'm quite confident I don't. DS, I doubt as his word skipping mostly disappears with the right reading pace and a visual guide. But he can read really fast with his word skipping and still comprehend. I'll keep aware as the gifted aspect could be offering a lot of coping, but it is still early since his patching therapy ended for me to trust skipping as a symptom of anything else.

This change is good news. We've also found it hugely freeing to DD to have the IEP and accommodations in place as a means for the teachers to understand her. Before she was consistently called to the mat for being sloppy and lazy. It took a huge toll. Because the emotional piece is in place, indeed, I'd follow polarbear's advice and do the neuropsych testing after finishing with the vision protocol.

We had a series of recommendations from our neuropsych, some of which you could implement now. The most important one from our perspective has been to start listening to books on tape. He suggested listening to only "good stuff". This has helped merge DD's oral vocabularly with her reading vocabulary as well as to hear the voice of reading. Of all the academic gains DD's made this year, I suspect listening to about 100 hours of stories in the last 10 months has been a major contributor.

You could start that now without fear of upsetting anything before any diagnosis.

Geofizz - yes I was thinking the same ... I was looking into an app on his iphone to download books and he could listen to them ... DH does that (I swear DH is at least midly dyslexic - whatever he is, I think DS is too, actually)... I read to him a lot - A myriad of stuff. Some nights I read him my favorite poetry - Poe, Blake, etc. This past week I have been reading him The Foundling http://www.amazon.com/Foundling-Other-Tales-Prydain/dp/0805080538 (he/we love this one btw). But we also read Magic Treehouse and Patterson's Daniel X series. But I'd like him to be able to "read" even more, on his own...

Actually, I should correct myself ... the school never implied he was lazy ... They called him "oppositional" even worse - cause then we all start walking down the ODD path ... meanwhile the poor kid is "oppositional" b/c you're making him do things that are physically painful and stressful for him .... Ayi Ayi yi

Yeah - I know at Ds reading assessemnts they're stringent - he skips a word or substitutes a similar word he gets is marked wrong' and can't move to the next level. I can see why it's important, though.

I know DS' teacher has been given him reading assessments lately... I suppose in response to my contacting the school about my concerns re dyslexia. DS was thrilled b/c apparently he got to move up a level in 100 book challenge. I am interested in what she finds on her assessments... DS told me of at least one instance where he inverted a word. Apparently, a sentence started out "On September" and he, of course, read "No September." He said the teacher stopped him and pointed it out to him. I asked him if she had any other comments about his reading and he said that she did tell him he is "adding words that aren't there." He does do that, which is where I get my suspicion that he is kind-of guessing at what he is reading more than we realize - you know? Like he sees workds and context and pictures and and is sort of reading and 'making it up' to a certian extent. Not sure, if that is another read flag for "dyslexia" or what... But I am interested in how she sees his reading.

Yea, we see the extra words and making it up. Sometimes he is automatically correcting the grammar. He also reads contractions as full words. And words split at the end of the line throws him for a loop, but he has been getting better at that.

The other thing, is he's been recognizing whole words and reading them since he was like two. Pre-K and most of K that was so far ahead. Now in 1st, with more emphasis on phonetics, he is basically having to completely relearn how he thinks about words. He still guesses at words based on pattern matches rather than sounding out. Like if he encountered "pterodactyl" for the first time, he might guess "predator" rather than like "pe-terd-act-ile" a phonetic orientation might go for. But proper names he'll try to sound it out, as if he realizes he probably hasn't seen it before.

LOL I do this! Does no one understand the subjunctive anymore? And why do people insist on pluralizing the word Octopus as Octopi! How does a book get published using the word Octopi? I am not even close to a grammer nazi but sheesh!

LOL - Love it! Thanks... My poor kid loves octopuses and people keep correcting telling him "octopuses" isn't correct that it is "octopi" - he tells them octopuses is not only correct but more correct and they argue with him insisting octopi is the only correct way. Three times this has happened. Octopi isn't correct period - doesn't matter that people say it anyway. So annoying.

So the teacher did reading assessments on my DS. I think I have mentioned before that his reading has never been below grade level. But I still suspect dyslexia or dysgraphia. Of course, I have no expertise in this area so... Like I said earlier in this thread, he did score in the mildly dyslexic range on the Dyslexia Determination Test and we were advised by the vision therapist and doctor that he should be tested specifically for dyslexia by a specialist. However, the teacher wrote me a detailed email today with the results of some reading assessments she did on my DS. She said he started the year on an instructional level 6 which met the fall benchmark and his independent level was a 4. Now he is reading independently at a level 12. The benchmark for the end of January is to at least be a level 10-12 independent, so he has already met that goal. He apparently scored 99% on the level 12 assessment.
Regarding his written letters, he completed a writing task independently today(by choice) within an appropriate time frame, using a word bank on the board and some adult help with spelling comparable to his peers. Of the 142 letters produced, the only reversal was the letter g one time.

She said she does see frequent reversals of numbers and am implementing strategies to help him with this and she will consult with the OT regarding the number reversals. His math progress is on target to date.

Soooo, I am guessing it is not looking good for them testing him for dyslexia/dysgraphia, huh? I did send in the the results of the Dyslexia Determination Test with the doctor's interpretatiosn and recommendations (that he be tested) to the Special Ed Directio and School Psych. She hasn;t gotten back to me yet but she will soon I am sure.

SO what do you all think? Can I still push for testing based on the Dyslexia screening? Should I? Am I being neurotic?

Thanks for any thoughts or advice!

It looks like your school uses the big, bad DRA. The DRA is notorious in dyslexia circles because it's a test and reading instruction system that relies on sight words. A dyslexic child with a solid memory can limp along for quite a ways before showing to the teacher that there's a problem. Indeed, my daughter would never have been uncovered as having reading problems using DRA, and it was not until I took her for a private evaluation did we have a diagnosis.

Further, if 12 is his independent level, then he passed that level, and the teacher should have kept assessing to find his instructional level. It sounds like that wasn't done. If you are to monitor his actual progress, then you need the teacher to find the level at which he makes errors, reads too slowly, or cannot understand the story. And then you need to look at the nature of errors that led to not passing the level. Be aware that at 18, there begin to be non-fiction texts in the assessment, and a child who has brute-forced reading through sight word may show a big difference in reading accuracy between the fiction and non-fiction versions of the test at that level due to more unfamiliar words.

Finally, have you sent the school a request to evaluate? If not, it's not clear to me that the special ed teacher will get back to you. In your place, I'd request tha t the teacher evaluate up to his ceiling on the DRA and ask the school to administer either AIMSweb or DIBELS as an initial screening for dyslexia.

Ohhhh thanks Geofizz. Good advice. I had emailed her back with a simple "glad he is progressing so well" beofre I read your post. Bummer maybe I should have waited and said what you said here about the ceiling etc. But i hate to "micromanage" her anymore than I already am... However, I have actually spoken with SpecEd Dir and school Psych seperately requesting testing for dyslexia. I sent in the doctor's eval which includes the results and interpretation of the Dyslexia Determination Test and his recommendations, one of which is to get a full dyslexia eval from a specialist. I did say to them that just because DS can read above grade level does not preclude his having dyslexia. I stated 'he needs to not be given behavioral assessments or achievements tests as we all know he is above-grade level, he needs to be given tests specially to test for dyslexia and dysgraphia. The fact that he can read does not mean he doesn't have dyslexia.' I mentioned that he is a 2e kid and that's why he does so well. So, School Psych did ask for the report and said she would look at the report and get back to me early this week. I expect to hear from her today.

And I realize he could very well not have it. Perhaps he just has some processing issues still from the vision disorder causing dyslexia-type symptoms and processing issues, right? ... But I want to be sure b/c if he has dyslexia or dysgraphia it will surely catch up to him sooner or later.

Ok, it seems like you have the special ed end covered. Maybe you could write back to the teaher with something along the lines of "so I got to thinking, in the fall you had an "instructional level" for him. Can you tell me what that means and what his current instructional level is?"

I don't think a second email is out of line.

For a response, though, I'm betting you'll get a tip-toe around the fact that she hasn't done it.

Well, the School Psych just called and she said "why don't we do the whole WISC again and we'll specifically test for the underlying processing that indicate dyslexia and dysgraphia."
So that's good! Right?!?

She said he may not be able to get a "disability label" because he isn't below grade level in anything. But, as I explained, that is fine with me b/c I am not as interested in getting a "label" as much as I am interested in seeing what is going on. And she said since he already has an IEP they can incorporate supports through that even without a reading disability label. He already has a writing disbility label (hypotonia) and accommodations for his vision disorder in his IEP so it would be easy to add additional supports an remediation even without an additional disability label.

She also said that she would send out BASC behavioral assessements to measure executive functioning and organizational skills. Any thouhhts on that?

Any advice and insights welcome! The testing will be done after the holidays and spread out over several days so that he doesn't tire.

I'm guessing that she'll be using other instruments for the new cognitive besides the WISC-IV.

I think so ... she said something like she would uses additional tests to explore the underlying processes for dyslexia and dysgraphia.

The label leads to services. Services are fantastic when appropriate, but getting the information and more fully understanding the underlying struggles is most important. So all that sounds like positive steps forward.

BASC is a basic check list for things related to ADHD. In my book, it's an appropriate screening to motivate looking more closely at those issues. In my experience, it's not an appropriate diagnostic tool, though it is often used as such.

All sounds like positive forward progress. Keep on pressing.

Yeah services would be nice if necessary but if the tests indicate dyslexia or dysgraphia and the school will not provide tutoring/services for that b/c he is on grade level and therefore 'not disabled' at least I know that I need to be doing it privately.

I just hope I am doing the right thing! Often I don't trust the schools the really find the true problem. Anyone have any tests/instruments that I should see if she is including to make sure she is looking for dyslexia and dysgraphia? I know geofizz mentioned diebels and AIMSweb...

Incidentally I am so excited to see how his WISC scores have changed (or haven't) since last year... particularly since he has had several months of vision therapy and OT since then.. I am hoping I see things even out a little. His Digit Span and Letter-Number Sequencing were deplorably low (7 and 8 respectively) and his coding and symbol search were also disturbingly low ( 4 and 7 respectively). Meanwhile his verbal comp and perceptual reasoning were 119. I'd love to see how this looks now after the vision therapy and OT. There was a 44 point discrepancy!

I think that will also be key information for understanding your DS. If there's no change, then you know there's something more than the vision going on, or that the VT wasn't effective.

As for additional testing, I think you need his actual level (evaluate on DRA until the teacher finds an "instructional" level) along with the DIBELS/AIMSweb. Note that DRA is not nationally normed, and therefore makes it difficult to compare to predicted performance from the WISC, which is why you might also want to do the reading portions of the WIAT as well if there are questions or discrepancies from the WISC and other reading assessments.

As for the writing, there are picture copying tests that help tease out the underlying cause of the reversals. I understand those less as DD didn't show her reversals in the testing (most severe in the first 3-4 weeks of school each year, even now in 5th grade).

You may want to look at the following link re which tests to use for LD, Dyslexia, Dysgraphia
http://www.concordspedpac.org/Whichtest.htm

Thanks Knute! Very helpful.

So you were right,GeoFizz, about the DRA. I asked the teacher about it and she replied, "The highest level I have given him is a 12, so he is most likely instructional at 14. Based on his reading on the 12, I don't think he would be independent on the 14, but, possibly. I haven't given it yet, due to the time it takes. I will have time in January to give the next level." School is not doing the testing/eval until after the holidays (which I agreed to); so I am thinking that's why she can put it off until January but does plan to do it in January. I am okay with that. He seems fine where he is and I think he needs the time to build his esteem. He is not used to finding reading 'easy' and fun as he went quite awhile due to his vision disorder barely staying on grade level as he he kept trying to get higher and couldn't. Reading was overwhelmingly difficult for him and he wanted to master it so badly. But I will check in with her in January to remind her to do the DRA on him all the way up to his true instructional level before the testing.